Cedarvale, also known as Hillsboro Ranch, was a dude ranch and working ranch in Carbon County, southern

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, United States. The ranch was established about 1903 by prospector Grosvener W. Barry on the South Fork Trail Creek. Barry used the ranch as a home for his family and as a base for his mining ventures, all of which failed. His most lucrative venture was the conversion of Cedarvale from a working ranch to a dude ranch, marketed through an arrangement with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. It was the first dude ranch in the area. Barry introduced powered boats to the

Bighorn River The Bighorn River is a tributary of the Yellowstone, approximately long, in the states of Wyoming and Montana in the western United States. The river was named in 1805 by fur trader François Larocque for the bighorn sheep he saw along its ba ...

to carry dudes to the ranch from the railhead at Kane, Wyoming. As a publicity stunt Barry, his stepson and a neighbor piloted the motorized ''Edith'' from the Hillsboro landing down the Bighorn,

Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

rivers, leaving on May 31, 1913 and arriving in New Orleans on August 1. One of Barry's boats, the ''Hillmont'', is on display at Barry's Landing.

Doc Barry

Grosvener W. Barry started life in New York and moved west with his wife Edith and her son from a previous marriage, Claude St. John. Known as "Doc, " Barry promoted a number of mining schemes. His most ambitious effort raised $50,000 to ship a

gold dredge A gold dredge is a placer mining machine that extracts gold from sand, gravel, and dirt using water and mechanical methods. The original gold dredges were large, multi-story machines built in the first half of the 1900s. Small suction machin ...

to work a claim on the Bighorn River at the mouth of Trail Creek, which never recovered its costs. Barry died in

Billings, Montana Billings is the largest city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Met ...

of a brain tumor on January 25, 1920. Edith and Claude St. John continued to manage the dude ranch after his death. The ranch eventually reverted to a working cattle ranch, continuing into the late 1950s

Description

The historic district comprises what amounts to a small town, including the 1-1/2 story log Hillsboro Post Office, the log Big Chicken House, the Small Chicken House, a milk house and a root cellar. Hulbert's Shop and the Dude Cabin are in two sections of the same small log structure. A barn, corral, and the Hulbert Cabin complete the ensemble. Nearly all of the buildings had sod roofs. The post office opened in 1915 and lasted until 1945. The main ranch house burned during the winter of 1947-48, and its replacement burned some years later. Cedarvale was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on August 19, 1975. It is a preserved area within

Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area is a national recreation area established by an act of Congress on October 15, 1966, following the construction of the Yellowtail Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation. It straddles the border between Wyoming ...

. The Barry's landing area of the park continues the Barry name.

References

External links

Hillsboro
at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

at Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area {{authority control National Register of Historic Places in Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area Buildings and structures completed in 1903 Dude ranches in Montana Ranches on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana 1903 establishments in Montana Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana National Register of Historic Places in Carbon County, Montana